Secrets of the Late Rebellion, Now Revealed for the First TimeFreese, Jacob R.
History
Secrets of the Late Rebellion, Now Revealed for the First Time
Freese, Jacob R.
United States -- Politics and government -- 1861-1865
_Second_.--"Castle Thunder." All that we have said of "Libby" will apply
equally well to this prison, except that in some cases the cruelty
of treatment might be _multiplied by two_, and in some instances by
_three._ Here our informant saw prisoners with ball and chain to their
legs, and handcuffed together; chanced to be in the room when the brains
of one of the prisoners were spattered against the wall, by a ball from
the musket in the hands of a sentinel on the pavement two stories below,
and only because the prisoner had dared to look out at a window; learned
of many like cases which occurred before and after that visit; nor has
he any doubt that scores were there inhumanly shot, because of orders
from the officer in command, Captain Alexander. At least one Union
prisoner, a Captain Dayton, was hung on the charge of being a spy. In
this prison, dogs that chanced to stray in were seized, killed, and
eaten; and rat-meat was regarded as a dainty dish.
_Third_.--Salisbury, N. C., was a large enclosure within a high board
fence, on the outside of which was a walk for sentinels, and within
which was the "dead-line," about thirty feet from the fence, to cross
which meant instant death to any prisoner. The "sinks" for the camp were
located on this "dead-line," and at one of his visits our informant saw
the dead body of a prisoner lying in one of the "sinks," who had been
shot by a sentinel in the afternoon of the day before while sitting on
the pole at the "sink." The sentinel, when asked why he had shot
the prisoner, replied that he thought he was trying to come over the
dead-line and therefore shot him. At this same visit our informant saw
sentinels, with guns on their shoulders, pacing their rounds on the
outside of this fence, who were not over twelve years of age, and the
one who had shot the prisoner at the "sink" was scarcely over this age.
The whole regiment on guard at that camp, at that time, was made up of
boys from twelve to sixteen years of age, and of very old men--not one
of all of whom was fit for a soldier. The officer in command, a Major
Gee, was himself a brute, and no more fit to have the care of human
beings than a hyena would be to be placed in charge of a sheepfold.
Here, as at Libby and Castle Thunder, the usual ration was a loaf made
from one pint of corn-meal, each day, and occasionally a small bit
of meat. For shelter most of them had to burrow for themselves, like
rabbits, in holes under ground; and so poorly were they off for clothing
and shoes, that our informant saw scores of men standing about the doors
of hospitals, waiting for the clothing and shoes of those who might die
within. Every morning carts came around to gather up the dead, to take
them without the camp and throw in trenches.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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